Finance, Property Rights and Productivity in Italian Cooperatives

Abstract

The form of association ... which if mankind continue to improve, must be expected in the end to predominate, is not that which can exist with capitalist as chief, and workpeople without a voice in the management, but the association of the labourers themselves on terms of equality, collectively owning the capital with which they carry on their operations, and working under managers elected and removable by themselves."

The Mondragon Worker Cooperatives’ Employment Record 1983–2019

“…The wc s' collective capital favours more investments and capitalisation. Generally, wc s are not undercapitalised and they increase capitalisation over long spells of time (George et al, 2020).…”

The spatial dimension of productivity in Italian co-operatives

“…All euro area countries are invited to set them up, while other EU countries are encouraged to do so. 36 To date, Italy has not yet established such a board, 37 in spite of the fact that productivity is widely acknowledged as the main factor holding back long-term economic growth in the country (Bugamelli et al, 2018[69]).…”

“…The analysis of productivity indicators suggests that the average productivity of co-operatives varies greatly across the Italian economy. In some regions and sectors, it exceeds the productivity of non-co-operative 36 See Council Recommendation of 20 September 2016 on the establishment of National Productivity Boards: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32016H0924%2801%29 37 See National Productivity Boards webpage, EU Commission: https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economyeuro/economic-and-fiscal-policy-coordination/national-productivity-boards_de (lastly accessed on 3 December 2020) 38 ACI web site: https://www.alleanzacooperative.it/l-alleanza/digitalizzazione-ed-economia-circolare-nelle-impresecooperative-il-12-aprile-evento-organizzato-dal-mise.html.…”